~Chapter 8: Problem With Command~
"So you've returned Noble Six." Captain Keyes saluted Noble Six as he walked into the command room. Again there was the round table in the middle of the room with a hologram of the ring on it. "Now we may being with the next mission."
In the room surrounding the table was Johnson, Master Chief, and O'Reilly. Everyone was watching as the hologram increased in size with a highlighted glowing area.
"The Covenant believe that this ring is some kind of super weapon, one of vast unimaginable power. Cortana has recently found out something, want to fill them in Cortana?"
On the side of the table flashed the hologram of Cortana. "From searching through the Covenant's tactical channels, I've learnt that they call this ring Halo, now they've been scouring the surface of Halo searching for something to lead them to its control room. We believe there is a map room at the highlighted section of this map."
Captain Keyes took over. "This is where Master Chief and Officer O'Reilly will attack." Keyes looked over to Master Chief. "Master Chief, you will lead Officer O'Reilly and his squad of ODST as well as a couple squads of Marines to take the beach LZ. Once the beach has been taken, you will have to fight your way along the outside of the island until you can find a way in to the map room."
Master Chief nodded. "Yes Sir."
Keyes looked over to O'Reilly. "Officer O'Reilly, once the beach has been taken, you and your squad will keep the LZ defended, we never know if we'll need a clear area to get away."
O'Reilly looked over to Master Chief then back to Keyes. "Yes sir."
The Hologram zoomed out and zoomed into another highlighted area. "While I was taken prisioner, I've listened in on some of the conversations of the guards. From what I could make out, they talked about a facility that used to be used to hold weapons in a swamp somewhere. Being as there seems to be only one swamp on this ring, we believe the weapons cache is in this building here. From what thermal scans show, it goes down a good bit." Keyes looked from the hologram to Johnson. "Sargeant Johnson, you're going to lead a squad of Marines to infiltrate this building, find the cache, I'll be down there once you find it." Johnson gave an affirmitive nod. Keyes eyes were now on Noble Six. "Noble Six, you will go with Johnson, but you'll take another route. We've found a large tower in the same swamp, I'm going to want you to investigate it."
Noble Six nodded his head and said, "Yes sir."
"Now does anyone have any problem with there mission objectives?" Keyes looked around the room.
"Yeah I have one." O'Reilly broke the silence. "Why do my men have to risk their lives the make sure that damn robot can get through saftley?"
"Because these are my orders and you're a soldier, are we going to have a problem here?" Captain Keyes had a scowl on his face.
O'Reilly clenched his fist tightly and banged it on the table. He gritted his teeth and stood back up straight. "No sir, we'll babysit the robot."
"Good, now if nobody else has anything to say, you're dismissed." Captain Keyes turned and walked through the door behind him.
Everybody left but O'Reilly and Noble Six. O'Reilly sat in one of the chairs on the outside of the room and leaned his head down.
"Is something wrong?" Noble Six knew something was going on with his friend.
"It's just that my men always have to risk their lives to make sure that a damn robot gets to live. He's a spartan, a genetically altered super soldier, made to be stronger, faster, combined with the super armor they're nearly invincible. But my men are regular men, they have no enhancements, just men who've trained hard, who can bleed real blood. Any of my men can do anything a spartan can do any day. As far as I care spartans arn't even human." O'Reilly leaned back.
Noble Six looked down at his friend. "I agree."
O'Reilly looked up at Noble Six with a surprised look on his face. "I didn't mean . . ."
Noble Six stobbed his friend from talking. "No need to explain yourself, I agreed with you already. We've been altered beyond belief. All our lives we've been trained for is fighting, killing. We know no family, all we know is the next mission. Heck, some of us got thrills from killing. But I've been seeing a different life recently. I've been striving for a reason to live, a reason to fight."
O'Reilly gave a small smile. "Noble Six, you're as human as the rest of us, even if you're a little modified, you actually care. Now only if you could rub some of that off on the other guy."
"If a spartan wasn't dangerous before, giving him the ability to be human will make him more a one man army." Noble Six sat next to O'Reilly and took his helmet off.
"Yeah, well I've got to go see Foehammer, i'd reconmend you do the same to let her know you're alive." O'Reilly got up adn left the command room.
"I'm as human as the rest of them huh?" Noble Six stared up at the ceiling. "Guess I should go tell Foehammer I'm alive." Noble Six stood up adn walked out the door.
The command center seemed to be fully alive with a great many things from The Pillar of Autumn. It wasn't a surprise that most of the vehicles survived the crash. Noble Six was sure there were a lot more in the ship still, but the Covenant were all over the area making it impossible to get anything from the ship, let alone a Scorpion or another Pelican. They were just going to have to make due with what they got.
"So, You did come back alive." Foehammer snuck up behind Noble Six. "It was my threat wasn't it?"
"Yeah, in fact, he was so terrified that he just had to come back alive." O'Reilly was standing over there next to her.
"I fear nothing." Noble Six smiled at the two.
"Well, you're both not going to be seeing me for a little while." Foehammer looked back and forth between O'Reilly and Noble Six.
"Why?" O'Reilly had a look of concern on his face.
"Well, I've got to go with a few squads of Marines to The Pillar of Autumn to get supplies." Foehammer looked at O'Reilly. "Don't worry, I'll be fine, this wouldn't be a first for me."
"Then I guess we're all going our seperate ways for this mission." Noble Six looked between his comrades. "I'll see you both when we all get back here alive."
A Note From Your Author: Hey people who are reading my story, thanks for all your views, starting now is when the story is going to start getting a little bit tricky so if things are going a little fast and you like to me to elaborate more in some areas, just tell me and it shall be done. Now since Halo 4 is coming out in a year I have no idea if this story will go into the new Halo series. All reviews are welcome, so drop one if you have the chance.